Europe versus US!!

College Search & Selection
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<p>Hi, I'm from Europe and I believe it's fair to say that most European consider the best American universitites to be better than the best European. </p>

<p>But I'm curious about what Americans think of European universities. Such as, say, Oxford and Cambridge. Compared to the best American or the best non-US/European.</p>

<p>Also, I'm studying social science. Have you even heard of universities like Essex (UK), LSE (London, UK), La Sorbonne or Science Po (Paris), IUE (Florence) or Humboldt (Berlin)? What do you think of them?</p>

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<p>Americans respect Oxford and Cambridge although most don't know much about them or the difference between undergrad education here and in Europe LSE, with many Americans applying for graduate study, is also repsected and the Sorbonne (although it shouldn't be). St. Andrews in Scotland is also known by some. I'd say the others are pretty much unknown here.</p>

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<p>Zagat, why would you say that the Sorbonne shouldn't be respected? It is considered by European and American scholars to be one of the top 5 or 6 universities in the World, particularly in the Humanities but also in the Sciences. Science Po (political Science and International Relations), Polytechnique (Engineering) and Institut Louis Pasteur (Natural Sciences) are also very highly regarded by academics and intellectuals the World over. The Universities of Grenoble, Montpellier and Lyon are also very highly regarded. In Germany, Heidelberg, the Technical University of Munich and the University of Gottingen are very well respected too. </p>

<p>Students may not know about those universities, but where it really matters, those schools are very highly regarded.</p>

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<p>In no particular order:</p>

<p>Oxford
Cambridge
LSE
St. Andrews
University of Paris (Sorbonne)</p>

<p>also leading international b-schools:</p>

<p>INSEAD
LBS
IMD</p>

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<p>Oxford and Cambridge are probably on par with the inferior ivies and Princeton. </p>

<p>HYSM have no overseas equivalent.</p>

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<p>haha princeton is so equal to hysm </p>

<p>wheres st. ANdrews?</p>

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<p>I think Trinity in Dublin is also moderately well known in the US and well respected by those who know it.</p>

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<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I'm from europe too. Out of curiosity - how is LSE seen? Is it considered mediocre or is it totally respected?</p>

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<p>Maybe it's just because I have a British teacher for several classes but the academic kids at my school do know about almost all these schools and see them as equivilent to the most prestigious American colleges.</p>

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<p>


</p>

<pre><code> :eek: tell me that you are joking!!!
</code></pre>

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<p>To those who know anything or are worthy of knowing anything...LSE is siiick.</p>

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<p>Could you elaborate a bit on that haithman?</p>

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<p>From the limited comparative (between Europe and the US universities) experience I have had, I would say that Oxford, Cambridge and Sorbonne are generally regarded as equals to Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale. </p>

<p>Schools like Imperial, LSE, Polytechnique, Science Po, Paris XI etc... are usually regarded as equals to schools like Columbia, Chicago and Johns Hopkins.</p>

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<p>Aren't you giving Sorbonne (and perhaps also Oxford and Cambridge) to much credit, Alexandre? I would put them as equal to Columbia, Chigago and Johns Hopkins - and not HYPS. </p>

<p>I have a friend studying at Sorbonne who tells he that it is utterly easy to get in. The fact that their faculty do not publish as much in the good journals as HYPS is in my view not only because it isn't in English.</p>

<p>But of course, I were asking of name recognition and not academic quality. Does your view also count for that?</p>

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<p>Sorbonne? Easy to get into? Who told you that? At any rate, whether a school is easy or hard to get into has nothing to do with it anyway. European universities are not elitist. They have standards. If you meet that standard, you get in. But to meet the standard is not easy. Do you realize that the French education system is difficult? The high school system in France does not give you the choice. The French Baccalaureate is very difficult. It is the equivallent of taking 7 or 8 AP classes for two years. And in order to get into the Sorbonne, one must get a mention Tres Bien. That's like getting a 4.0 GPA taking only AP classes and then, getting all 5s on the AP exams. The average student at Sorbonne is as good as the average student at Yale...maybe not as well rounded but probably more refined and intellectually inclined. </p>

<p>Reputationally, Sorbonne is one of the best. It was founded in the 12th century by Eloise and Abelard. Since then, it has been one of Europe's top 3 universities. In the 20th century, Sorbonne has been home to countless Nobel Prize winners and some of the greatest thinkers in France. People like Jean Paul Sartre, Andre Gide, Marie Currie etc...</p>

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<p>nomad- st. andrews is a uni on the coast of scotland. it's beautiful, but i think that the only reason that it's ranked so highly is because prince wills attended. most people i've talked to say that it's a good school - but way overrated...</p>

<p>and random tidbit, a upenn classics professor advised me to "go to st andrews, marry a prince, and die rich and happy" ...it seems like many american female students are studying abroad in st andrews for the off chance of meeting the prince of wales. hm, kind of ridic imo.</p>

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<p>Hey, Sorbonne is indeed a nice university. And the points you mention are correct as well. But I really should add, that Sorbonne in France.....(and I suppose they know what they're talking about there...eh!?) is seen as inferior to their so-called Grandes Ecoles, which are ENA (Ecole National d'Administration), HEC (Hautes Etudes Commercialles), Science-Po, ESSEC, and some other less known universities. Sorbonne is seen in France (and Europe) as easy to get into, since it has no selection process (but yr right that French High School, like most West-European High Schools is much, much more difficult than the American equivalent...however, Dutch, Belgian, (in most cases German) High School diploma's on the university preparatory level do get you into the Sorbonne without a problem). To get into the Grandes Ecoles you need to le Bac like for any university....on top of that les classes preparatoires, and after that...they take the top 10%.....hehe, not for nothing a fair 80% of all business leaders, and almost a 90% of all political leaders in France, have studied at les Grandes Ecoles. A notable exception is Villepin, France's new prime minister, who studied at Sorbonne.....this is seen throughout Europe as unique: all others in Chirac';s cabinet studied at ENA. Perhaps interesting to know, that Chirac finished his studies with the best result of his year. Hehe...not that I'm fond of his, but the comparison in terms of intelleigence with Bush is really funny :) Anyhow, the Grandes Ecoles are at last opening their gates to non-french people, so will hopefully become more known outside Europe. Their reputation (Sciences-Po on its own already) smashes that of the Sorbonne a thouzand-fold.</p>

<p>BTW, there is also not something as 'the Sorbonne', that university was actually closed a century ago...what is nowadays referred to as the Sorbonne, are a number of different universities in le Quartier Latin (the students part of Paris). All these universities claim the name Sorbonne, the best one is I believe Paris IV.</p>

<p>see also: <a href="http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=472915%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=472915&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>From most hat I know and the opinion of almost every colleague, Oxford is regarded as above Harvard and perhaps the best in the world in many respects.</p>

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<p>can someone list the top european universities by country? if possible, i'm curious to know what are the top universities in each of the EU countries.</p>

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<p>ok...an attempt, but it's just my impression, I'll accept every modification...Especially on the countries whose universities I'm not familiar with</p>

<p>UK: Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, LSE, Kings College, Warwick</p>

<p>France: Science-Po, HEC, ESSEC, Paris IV (Sorbonne), ENA</p>

<p>Germany: Heidelberg, Humbold, and... (?)</p>

<p>Netherlands: Utrecht University, Leiden University, Delft University of Technology, Rotterdam School of Management (I'm Dutch, I'm just more familiar with the situation here, hence the longer row)</p>

<p>Belgium: Leuven University, Free University of Brussels</p>

<p>Switzerland: ETH, HEI, Un iversity of St Gallen, University of Zurich</p>

<p>Italy: Bocconi (there are more, but don't know them)</p>

<p>Spain: ESSAD is a great businessschool, don't know the universities here</p>

<p>Hungary: Central University</p>

<p>Austria: no idea...</p>

<p>Sweden: Lund University, University of Stockholm</p>

<p>Norway: no idea....</p>

<p>Finland: no idea...</p>

<p>Denmark: University of Kopenhagen (they also have a great business school)</p>

<p>Ireland: Trinity College</p>

<p>Iceland: no idea</p>

<p>Luxembourg: no idea</p>

<p>Greece: University of Athens</p>

<p>Portugal: no idea</p>

<p>Of this list....I'd say the UK, France, and Switzerland/the Netherlands have somehow the lead. But again, this is subjective, I'm just not very familiar with Spain and Italy for instance.</p>

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